In my life, I've lived in very different kinds of places - very tiny rooms when I was young. And you do learn to cope with it. The funny thing is, as you begin to inhabit larger places, it's very interesting how quickly you adapt to your space. What seems enormous at first becomes natural after a few weeks.

you can survive only if nothing is necessary to you

I'm really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

I never feel I'm standing on solid ground, and I do write with a certain kind of trembling fear.

Stories without endings can do nothing but go on forever, and to be caught in one means that you must die before your part in it is played out.

All through my writing life I've had this impulse to write autobiographical works.

In Invisible there's a lot about childhood, the death of the brother and then the relationship between the brother and sister.